Page 9 of Severed Rivalry
She’s right. I can’t protect her from everything, and she needs protection. That’s my job… And I swear I’m screwing up at every turn.
My phone rings with a number I’d know anywhere. Imemorized it eons ago and have recited it to myself as a mantra. For crying out loud, it’s even our WiFi password.
But it’s never dialed me. Not at this number for sure.
My thumb hovers over the screen, but temptation gets the best of me.
“Hello?”
3
from her ass
Sariah
“Hey, Angel.”
My feet glue themselves to the floor, and I darn near topple with the shift in momentum.
Angel. How long has it been since I’ve heard that name in his sultry voice?
“Ci—” My voice is a whisper. “The flowers are…” I’m fighting my instinct to reveal nothing while wanting to say everything and never stop. “They’re stunning, Ci. I can’t believe you remembered.”
“I remember everything.” He pauses his words and somehow all the background noise stops too, as if he’s no longer pacing and the air has gone still around him. “Everything.”
“Me too.” My quiet admission is the most vulnerable I’ve been since… well, since Renée was conceived.
“I want to see you.”
I want to be seen, but—“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why?” His voice is firm.
“Because there are things you don’t know. Things better left unknown.”
“Like your name?”
Damn.
“Yes.” There’s no obstinance to my voice, no fight, just the quiet admission.
“I don’t accept that.”
I wait him out, saying nothing. Not knowing what to say.
“Angel, I let you slip away once. I count it among my greatest regrets. You’re back, and I don’t want to regret it any longer.”
I sigh and take a seat at the table. The peonies wink at me, their color vibrant.
His words. My life. And my daughter in the balance.
“I don’t either. But give me a little time?”
“What’s a little?”
That’s the man I knew. Kind, right, but determined. I laugh quietly. “You haven’t changed, have you?”
“I’m not a boy anymore, Sariah.” My name on his lips is the sexiest and damn near the scariest thing I can imagine. “Who I am at my core? No, that hasn’t changed. It won’t. The circumstances of my life, though? A lot has. I’m guessing you’re the same?”
